HI all, I have taken the last start gas canister out of my jets now ,none of them carry a canister now.This was done to help prevent a fire if I am unlucky to have a crash.I unloaded the one I took out tonight and was surprized to see how much gas still was in their.I just wunder how many fires could have been avioded if everyone did the same.
Rcpete

In February, I did the same thing. I have gone 100% over to the green coleman propane with the Great Northern Models adapter. I just dial in the propane needed on startup and those green propane bottles give lots and lots of great starts.

I know of at least three instances of on board propane lines that were under pressure igniting and flopping all around on fire.

I don't even use the onboard propane solenoid valve any more, I just hook a line direct to the engine and regulate it off the GNM valve. Perfect starts every time.

If you go the route I have gone, make sure you put a check valve on the line to the engine, you don't want heat coming up the line, it will fry the festo valve inside the engine.

Use the same method as Sean. Great results..

Regarding the check valve. I put one after reading on that here, but not sure how it help. Assume is that the heat in the engine can/may go out thru the open propane line. Is the issue losing pressure or what?

Regards,

Edgar, ya, that's the problem, there is 30 psi in the engine and the heat comes up the open ended propane line. The solenoid valve is what prevents that typically, so I put a check valve in place.

You can do a manual valve as well.

I found some engines don't need the check, some do, but better safe, put the check on all.

Sean's got it bang on with check valve. I once had a small leak in an up stream fitting that was connected to a propane line, eventually causing the right-angle Festo bulkhead fitting to melt on that particular engine. The plastic in the fitting body melted away very quickly. The PST's use a metal fitting under the cover, but the polyurethane hose used on all brands of engines is also susceptible to melting with a short exposure to heated pressure casing air. An engine will only be exempt to that failure mode if it incorporates fittings with integrated check valves, likely the straight bulkhead union type that extend out the front of the engine cover. If the solenoid is left in and there's no integrated check valve on the engine, the solenoid is all that's preventing the venting. There's always a small chance the o-rings in the valve could become worn out or damaged one day, leaving the check valve as the last resort of protecting against a flow reversal. I recommend a check immediately preceding the solenoid, also used as the connector to the off-board canister.

Personally, I run both my jets with the canisters removed and have for a few years. On any auto start, I can't understand why a pilot would not be positioned in the immediate vicinity of his/her jet. For that reason, why not forgo the canister and opt for an external (and larger) version of the same thing? I do still include the solenoid and recommend that our customers do so, allowing the ECU to still ultimately control the flow. The rate of flow is determined by the trigger valve I use from Usher Tool.

One important note though for powermax canister users...
Powermax cans have a small clunk in them that allows the outlet to feed from the bottom of the canister, thus drawing liquid start fuel. In order to ensure gaseous flow only, make sure you invert the powermax canister. Most, if not all the engines today will require the propane or mix in its gaseous form only.

Here's a photo of my stingray and its propane valve position? The yellow line connects to the off-board canister through the check valve.

It's late...
Kelly

Don´t know what turbine you are using, but in the purple ones there is a option to dump the gas
cannister after starting the engine, minimizing the chances of a crash and burn...

Just as caution note, a friend here had a flame out in his plane, due a header tank malfunction, and he could not bring it back to the strip. The plane vanished in a hill. and while we walked thru it, I said:"well, at least it couldn´t catch fire, because the turbine was not running and the gas dumped" , then we saw smoke coming from behind the hill! the thing while gliding blind, severed a high tension wire, and it started a fire in the vegetation. After recovering the plane and stopping the fire, (many people came to watch the action) we realized that the other wire was hanging too from the post.. and then it fell too! For our luck nobody was near it, but it could been fatal is someone got hit.


Enrique